They were fascinated by the fork.

Or possibly disgusted. Either way is good. 😁

There were some naturally-occurring caves, but also the following:

• Some eldritch horrors sleeping in the deepest caverns beneath the city who act as a “lodestone” for evil creatures, compelling them to come here.
• An ancient cleric once attempted to build a massive vault here as a safe depository for evil artifacts. He became corrupted by them, and turned into the first Evil Overlord.
• Much later on, a second Evil Overlord appeared who wanted the secrets of the first Evil Overlord. He expanded the caves and turned them into his military headquarters for his conquering horde of monsters.
• There was also a major dwarf hold here at some point before they abandoned it.
• There is an entire drow city deep beneath the surface.
• Assorted other groups of monsters keep showing up and making themselves at home.
• Oh, and the current incarnation of the city has been built on top of this, which includes a massive sewer system that is gradually breaking down from lack of maintenance.

The whole dungeon system has developed over the course of more than 8,000 years. The general inclination of the citizens above is to wall off any entrances they find, and otherwise let adventurers deal with it. (This is another unique aspect about this city - it’s the only one on the continent which has a professional class of adventurers.)

As for the Thieves’ Guild, they tend to grease a lot of palms in the city watch, so they don’t have to worry much from law enforcement unless they do something too blatant. However, there is a new criminal organization which is giving them a lot of trouble, and there are a lot of adventurers around, so they do have reasons to take their security seriously.

The guild have mages in their employ who could help with magical security, but none of them is present in this safe house.

The main headquarters are elsewhere, but the guild maintains lesser safehouses in most districts of the city.

But you are right, I haven’t put much thought into whether this is a hub for activities or a place to lay low. I’d say it’s primarily the former.

The city of Ptolus has a long and convoluted backstory, and is known across much of the continent as “that weird city with all the dungeons and adventurers”. Suffice to say, there are reasons why the region attracts all kinds of supernatural creatures, and there were many, many different groups of people and creatures who expanded these dungeons.

If you like the whole concept of “dungeon delving mixed with city adventures”, I can highly recommend Ptolus. Few do it better, or more exhaustively.

The closest I can think of is the “Earn Income” downtime activity, but that’s not exactly the same as what you pay NPCs.

Another candidate: The Centralia Mine Fire, an underground coal seam fire that has been going for sixty years, and which could continue to burn for 250 further years!

I wonder how dwarves or other subterranean civilizations would deal with something like this?

I suspect that there is quite a lot of overlap with kobolds and household spirits in German folklore.

For anyone wondering about the photo, I believe this is the Catacombes underneath Paris. I visited it 2 weeks ago, it really looks like this. I am fairly sure this is a really photo.

Indeed it is, as I have mentioned in the Alt Text. 😉

Shadowrun 1E. Yes, I am that old.

No matter how good this game might be, I am not giving my money to an alt-right supporter.

Also, ich könnte viel über Merkel sagen, aber “dumm” ist sie nicht. Alleine schon daß sie es in der Männer-dominierten CDU bis an die Spitze gebracht hat und so lange Kanzlerin blieb zeigt von ihrer Intelligenz.

Mein Problem mit ihr war, daß sie dem Land 16 Jahre Stillstand besorgt hat. Aber man sollte ihre Intelligenz auf keinen Fall unterschätzen.

How well does chat AI do when it comes to representation?

One huge flaw of AI-based systems I keep on hearing about is that they tend to repeat the biases of their training data.

Im großen und ganzen mochte ich die Politik von Merkel nicht, aber ich habe sie immer respektiert.

Was ich von Merz nicht behaupten kann.

I love this kind of serendipity - this often creates the best scenes!

Well, I do plan to write a book about these, eventually.

But I have some other books to write first. 😉

I’ll have to see if I can schedule a few further appropriate tales for translation later this year. In the meantime, here some other tales that feature groups of treasure hunters:

Treasure Hunters in Wesenberg

At the end of the previous and the beginning of the current century there was a whole group of treasure hunters pursuing their trade in Wesenberg and the surrounding villages. Their usual place of rest between their excavations was the Prelauker or Belower Theerofen whose owners were keen participants in the digging, though this did not particularly help any of them. Instead their pub declined more than it prospered, and the heirs had to recover what their fathers had neglected.

Now, it is well known that the very foundation of treasure excavation is the maintenance of unbroken silence. And this was the point where the undertaking of our heroes usually failed. They themselves frequently told the story not without some pride, but also with hidden anger, of how the three of them progressed far enough into the ground that they spotted a heavy, large container that would have contained the treasure. But suddenly a white maiden - another source, my uncle, called her “clad in grey clothing” - jumped between their hands, back and forth, so that they were no longer able to work. Suddenly one of the treasure hunters impatiently called to his neighbor: “Rehdanz, grab her, grab her!”, and at once the treasure, the maiden, and everything else was gone.

Source: Bartsch, K. Sagen, märchen und gebräuche aus Mecklenburg, 1879. p. 252f.

The Sunken Castle Burggraben near Immigrath

Next to the railroad between Immigrath and Opladen, about 20 minutes distant from the first village, lies the so-called Burggraben (“castle wall”), an old hillfort which used to be a knight’s castle according to the beliefs of the locals. As they claim, a violent robber knight used to live there who was the terror of the entire region, causing all neighboring landowners to fortify their homes with moats and walls. But today the castle has sunk beneath the ground, for the knight supposedly kept an innocent maiden in close confinement for a long time. For this iniquity the castle was sunk. But many treasures have gone into the depths with it, in particular a barrel with gold and a golden spinning wheel. The spinning wheel was once stolen by the robber knight of Burggraben from a princess, for only the daughters of high nobles spin on golden spinning wheels.

There have often been attempts to unearth these treasures on Saint Matthias’ Night, but all such efforts have been in vain so far. Once several men, who were even accompanied by a woman, dug for those treasures. Suddenly a great barrel rolled past them. This shock paralyzed the whole group. When they had recovered somewhat from this surprise, everything was gone. Another time the treasure hunters thought themselves close to their goal when a powerful storm arose which filled their souls with such dread that they fled in fright.

Source: Schell, O. Bergische Sagen, 1897. p. 475f.

The Failed Treasure Hunt near Hoyerswerda

(Tale from Hoyerswerda)

A treasure was supposedly buried in the Fasanengarten (“pheasant garden”) near Hoyerswerda. Several farmers had heard of this as well. They decided to unearth it. The farmers had the reputation of being knowledgeable in secret things. And indeed, they had discovered an incantation in their books of spells with which they could unearth it. One day they went to the site. One of the farmers began to recite the incantation, but he had not memorized it precisely. He was reciting it in a manner that was riddled with errors, and while he was doing so, a large mob of stags, wolves, and other animals gathered which closed in on the farmers. The latter were rooted in place by fear. Then the earth opened up and a large stream of water emerged from it. This water rose so high that it wetted the chests of the farmers. Now the farmer, who had caused this trouble in the first place, had a bright idea. He quickly recited the incantation backwards. Immediately, the waters receded and the animals retreated. Howling and screeching like that from wild animals could still be heard, but only from a distance. When the farmer had finished the incantation, everything uncanny was gone.

Now the farmers hurried home in fright. Some of them expired on the way, while others died at home. Only one farmer stayed alive. For this farmer owned a whole library of spell books, and thus he must have known how to overcome his terror. But this farmer suffered in the end as well. For when he became old, he wished to die, but this wish did not come true. Finally the Devil appeared to him and told the farmer that he would help him if he gave him his soul. The farmer did so. Then the Devil advised him to burn his spell books. The farmer followed the Devil’s advice. When the last book was consumed by fire and turned to ash, the life of the farmer expired as well.

Source: Veckenstedt, E. Wendische Sagen, Märchen und abergläubische Gebräuche, 1880, p. 378f.

Yeah, it has something of a learning curve, but it is flexible in a way that few other tools can match.

…where did I say that? I think you might have misunderstood me there - I said that the PCs have plans to go elsewhere, but this is not a change of plans.

Ich halte Imperialismus für grundsätzlich schlecht, auch wenn er mal nicht von den Amerikanern kommt.

Daß viele auf der linken politischen Seite unfähig sind, russischen Imperialismus als solchen zu erkennen, ist für mich unglaublich frustrierend.

Thank you for the alternate suggestions on how to start the campaign, but I am not going to change my setup:

• I realize that “you all meet in a tavern” is a cliche, but it’s not actually one I have used before - my last three #DnD campaigns all started with the PCs going through the local immigration offices together, and I wanted to do something different for a change. Besides, I love playing with well-established tropes and see how I can twist them.
• I have already told the player that this is how the campaign is going to start - the PCs have agreed to meet in this tavern because they want to travel to the big city together for their common goal (find out what their magical birthmarks mean). The tavern will serve as the setpiece for their initial meeting where the players can get a feel for each others’ characters, and get involved in the local shenanigans (some of which will be relevant for the campaign later on).

So I am not looking for alternatives here, but local color and perhaps some red herrings.